Whilst extra states have moved to legalize marijuana, charges of present and lifelong hashish use amongst highschool college students have continued to drop, newly launched federal knowledge reveals.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s (CDC) Youth Threat Conduct Survey (YRBS), revealed final week, discovered that teen use of all monitored substances—together with marijuana, alcohol and prescribed drugs—has “decreased linearly” over the previous decade.
In the case of hashish, what’s particularly notable is that the federal research reveals highschool pupil use was trending up from 2009-2013—earlier than authorized marijuana dispensaries began opening—however has been typically on the decline since then. The primary state leisure legalization legal guidelines had been accepted by voters in 2012, with regulated retail gross sales starting in 2014.
The newest knowledge from the biennial survey reveals that 15.8 p.c of highschool college students reported utilizing marijuana not less than as soon as previously 30 days in 2021—down from 21.7 p.c in 2009 and considerably decrease than the report excessive of 23.4 p.c in 2013.
Through CDC.
Well being officers have been inspired by the development, although they’ve identified that social isolation insurance policies ensuing from the coronavirus pandemic possible performed a job within the extent to which substance misuse declined amongst youth in the latest two-year interval measured.
Nonetheless, the general development conflicts with probably the most frequent prohibitionist arguments in opposition to marijuana legalization. Regardless of their claims that legalizing hashish for adults would drive up teen utilization, research and surveys—together with these performed or funded by the federal authorities—have repeatedly proven in any other case.
The truth is, in accordance with the YRBS survey, highschool hashish consumption was at its highest level within the years research earlier than any state had opened marijuana retailers for adults. And within the years since, as an increasing number of markets have come on-line, fewer youth say they’re utilizing hashish.
Teenagers are additionally reporting decrease charges of lifetime marijuana consumption. In 2021, 27.8 p.c of teenagers mentioned they’ve used hashish not less than as soon as of their lifetime, an almost 10 share level drop from 2019 when the speed was 36.8 p.c.
Once more, the height lifetime use for marijuana was in 2013 (40.7 p.c), earlier than any states had opened adult-use hashish retailers.
“Youth substance use has declined over the previous decade, together with in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic,” a supplementary report from CDC says, “nevertheless, substance use stays frequent amongst U.S. highschool college students, and continued monitoring is essential within the context of the altering marketplaces for alcohol beverage merchandise and different medicine.”
“Scaling-up tailor-made, evidence-based insurance policies, applications, and practices to scale back elements that contribute to danger for adolescent substance use and promote elements that defend in opposition to danger would possibly assist construct on latest declines,” it says.
New CDC knowledge accessible: See the newest knowledge on well being dangers and experiences amongst U.S. highschool college students. #CDCYRBS https://t.co/ileEb4Od54
— CDC’s Division of Adolescent and College Well being (@CDC_DASH) May 1, 2023
Whereas COVID possible contributed to the abrupt decline in hashish and different substance use measured in 2021, the marijuana developments have been constant over the course of the reform motion.
Final 12 months, for instance, a Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse- (NIDA) funded research that was revealed within the American Journal of Preventive Drugs discovered that state-level hashish legalization shouldn’t be related to elevated youth use.
The research demonstrated that “youth who spent extra of their adolescence beneath legalization had been no roughly more likely to have used hashish at age 15 years than adolescents who spent little or no time beneath legalization.”
Yet one more federally funded research from Michigan State College researchers that was revealed within the journal PLOS One final summer time discovered that “hashish retail gross sales is perhaps adopted by the elevated prevalence of hashish onsets for older adults” in authorized states, “however not for underage individuals who can not purchase hashish merchandise in a retail outlet.”
In the meantime, adolescent marijuana use in Colorado declined considerably in 2021, in accordance with the newest model of a biennial state survey launched final 12 months.
A research out of California final 12 months discovered that “there was one hundred pc compliance with the ID coverage to maintain underage patrons from buying marijuana instantly from licensed shops.”
The Coalition for Hashish Coverage, Training, and Regulation (CPEAR), an alcohol and tobacco industry-backed marijuana coverage group, additionally launched a report final 12 months analyzing knowledge on youth marijuana use charges amid the state-level legalization motion.
One other federally funded research, the Nationwide Survey on Drug Use and Well being (NSDUH), was launched in October displaying that youth marijuana use dropped in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic and as extra states moved to enact legalization.
Additional, an evaluation revealed by the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation in 2021 12 months discovered that enacting legalization has an general impression on adolescent hashish consumption that’s “statistically indistinguishable from zero.”
The U.S. Division of Training’s Nationwide Middle for Training Statistics additionally analyzed youth surveys of highschool college students from 2009 to 2019 and concluded that there’s been “no measurable distinction” within the share of these in grades 9-12 who reported consuming hashish not less than as soon as previously 30 days.
There was “no change” within the price of present hashish use amongst highschool college students from 2009-2019, an earlier CDC survey discovered. When analyzed utilizing a quadratic change mannequin, nevertheless, lifetime marijuana consumption decreased throughout that interval.
One other research launched by Colorado officers in 2020 confirmed that youth hashish consumption within the state “has not considerably modified since legalization” in 2012, although strategies of consumption are diversifying.
Picture courtesy of Martin Alonso.
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